Childhood hobby helps coin shop owners get started

What started as a childhood hobby of collecting coins, has become a vocation for the owners of the Xenia Coin Shop.

Ryan Davis and Brad Dutro have been the owners of the Xenia Coin Shop for two years, following the shop’s own 42 year history.

“My grandfather got me into it,” Dutro said. “Every Sunday after church we’d sit and sort coins, and he was a huge collector too. He ended up passing a good amount down to me when he retired. That’s really what fueled the fire for me.”

Partners Ron Newcomer and Bill Wynn were the original owners of the shop, then ownership changed to Col. Jim Huffman for 12 years before Davis and Dutro took over in 2018.

The Xenia Coin Shop, located on West Second Street in Xenia, buys, sells and trades coins, paper money, relics, gold, silver and more. They also appraise collections, coins and jewelry.

Dutro also owns a coin shop in Cincinnati, where both Davis and he travel from to work at the Xenia shop.

Despite many businesses getting shut down in early March due to the coronavirus, the Xenia Coin Shop stayed open as a financial institution. Davis said he had a lot of customers cashing in items like silver and gold for extra cash.

The current market value of an ounce of gold is around $1,723. Silver currently goes for, roughly, $17.93 per ounce.

According to Davis, other coin shops in the area have not been as fortunate as the Xenia Coin Shop.

“Unfortunately, after (the coronavirus shutdown) happened, there are two (coin shops) within an hour of this shop that are closing down,” Davis said.

For the Xenia Coin Shop, Davis said the coronavirus shutdown was “definitely a rough patch” for the store.

As for the coin business, Davis notes that there’s not a lot of “real” coin shops left. Both Dutro and Davis are part of the American Numismatic Association, a national nonprofit that educates and encourages people to study and collect coins.

Davis said he could only think of a handful in the state of Ohio that are part of the association.

Alan Liming, president and CEO of Xenia Area Chamber of Commerce, said the shop has been a longtime part of the community.

Liming said the coin shop has “always been a good member” and he has never heard a negative comment from anyone about the shop.

Dutro and Davis said they have community members that come in sometimes and say they remember visiting the shop in the ’80s. Davis said the building was an arcade and a pizza parlor at points in time.

“I think everyone in this line of work has to have a passion for (coin collection) before they make it their livelihood,” Davis said.

Davis graduated with a finance degree, but agreed to take over the Xenia shop after Dutro approached him with the opportunity.

Now, two years later, Xenia Coin is one of fewer than 20 coin shops in the Dayton area.

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